The present invention relates to fishing hooks.
Fishing hooks have conventionally consisted of a hook portion from which there extends a shank. The shank terminates with an eyelet which cooperates with the fishing line to secure the hook to the fishing line.
Securing the line to a conventional fishing hook is reasonably tedious and time consuming. These problems are exacerbated in cold weather or if the user is wearing gloves. Still further, conventional attachment methods are known to fail in that the hook becomes detached.
The two most common knots used are the blood knot or several half hitches which, when tied by amateurs, result in a reduction of the achievable line strength by 30 to 50% from the nominal line strength. This is due to the fact that today most mono-filament lines are very good in tensile strength but are weakened easily by heating and chain relocation. Most of the afore mentioned conventional knots cause the polymer chain to twist in both dimensions around sharp angles especially as the line tightens against itself in knot formation. These distortions create frictional heat and the knot and line wrapping does not allow generated heat to escape, thereby reducing the normal line strength significantly. The above problems are equally applicable to the construction of commercial fishing lines, in which the hooks are secured to the line by means of a mechanically constructed knot. These knots formed by machine in addition to the afore mentioned problems frequently over stress the line which can further increase the possibility of failure of the line.
From the above it follows that conventional fishing hooks with an eyelet onto which the fishing line is secured using conventional attachment knots does significantly limit the line strength, i.e. premature line breaking occurs.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of forming a knot to attach a fishing line to a fishing hook, the hook having a shank terminating at one end with a line attachment portion including a retaining means and terminating at another end with a hook portion, said method including the steps of locating two portions of the line together so that the line portions are generally co-extensive, wrapping the coextensive portions about the shank to form pairs of convolutions, with each pair consisting of a convolution from each coextensive portion, a first one of the pairs being located closer to the hook portion and a second one of the pairs being located closer to the attachment portion, with said line extending from one of the coextensive portions of the first one of the pairs back upon itself to the other coextensive portion of the first one of the pairs so that the line forms a loop, passing said loop over said attachment portion, moving the convolutions to said retaining means and applying a force to one or both of the lines extending from the pair of convolutions closest to the retaining means away from the convolutions so as to diminish the size of the loop without the loop being passed back over the attachment portion.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a fish hook including a hook portion, a shank extending from the hook portion, and a line attachment portion to engage a fishing line to secure the fishing line to the hook, said attachment portion including two legs which extend from a junction, with a first of the legs having a free end which in use remains spaced from the secured leg, and a second leg being connected to the shank, wherein the second leg is arranged to extend in substantially the same direction as the shank, said legs each having a line engagement portion, with the line engagement portions, from the free end of the first leg substantially to the junction, being spaced by a distance of at least one times the diameter of the fishing line, the first leg being arranged such that a blood knot when tied from the fishing line at the attachment portion could be slid off along the second leg, and slid around the junction and shield along the first leg and over the free end of the first leg.
Preferably, an elongated clear space is defined between said line engagement portions, the clear space having a length several times the spacing between the line engagement portions.
Advantageously, the first leg terminates with an end portion which diverges away from the second leg.
Further, the line engaging portions are preferably spaced by a distance of between one and two times the fishing line diameter.
Preferably, the hook is formed from plastic or metal.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a knot to secure the hook of any one of claims 2 to 6, said knot including a pair of generally parallel coextensive line portions wound about one of said two legs to form pairs of convolutions and extending to a loop joining the line portions, the loop being formed around one of the two legs with said line portions passing between the loop and the pairs of convolutions.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of forming a knot to attach a fishing line to a fishing hook, the hook having a shank terminating at one end with the line attachment portion including a termination portion and terminating at another end with a hook portion, said method including the steps of wrapping the fishing line at least twice about the shank to form at least two convolutions, with a first portion of the line having a free end extending from a first of the at least two convolution located closest to the attachment portion, moving the convolutions to said retaining means and pulling a second portion of the line extending from a second one of the at least two convolutions being located furthest away from the retaining means so that the second portion crosses the convolutions and the first portion of the fishing line.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a knot to secure the hook of the invention, said knot including a first portion of the line being wound about the first or the second leg to provide a plurality of convolutions, a second portion of the line having a free end extending from a first one of the convolutions being located closest to the junction, and a third portion of the line extending from a second one of the convolutions located furthest away from the junction back over the convolutions and said second portion.
It is an advantage of at least one embodiment of the present invention to provide a knot that reduces damaging effects to the fishing line during the tying of the knot as the tightening occurs around the shank of the hook thereby resulting in a larger diameter with a gentler bending rate when compared to a knot wherein the line is bent around itself (i.e. a smaller diameter). In at least one embodiment the shank acts as a heat sink for the fishing line thereby conducting frictional heat that may be created under a varying load away from the knot (i.e. the fishing line). It is another advantage of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a knot configured such that tying occurs without excessive frictional resistance as the knot forms on the shank with little slippage (thus light tension) when compared to a knot wherein the tightening includes tightening the line against itself.
A further advantage of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a knot that applies less degrees of twist per length of line in the knot thus reducing the chain damage due to the twisting of the line.
It is another advantage of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a knot wherein the line spirals along the shank of the hook such that under load the line does not twist or rotate excessively but does elongate by slight slippage along the hook.
The invention may be more fully understood from the following description of preferred embodiments of the method, the hook and the knot of the present invention provided with the accompanying drawings.